Chess PatternsDouble bishop sacrifice
Both bishops are given up to tear away the h7 and g7 pawns, then the queen and a rook finish off the bare king. Made famous by Lasker against Bauer in 1889, it needs one piece more than it first appears to.
How it works (spoiler)
Bxh7+ and Bxg7 remove both pawns in front of the king, and the queen comes in with check each time. The point is Rf3: the rook swings to the h-file and threatens mate, so Black has to give up the queen. Then Qd7 forks the bishops, and White ends up with queen and rook against two rooks and a bishop, with Black’s king still exposed.
The set-up: two bishops, a queen and a rook
Look for bishops side by side aiming at h7 and g7, such as d3 and e5 here, or d3 and b2 on the long diagonal. The queen must be able to reach the h-file with check, and a rook must be able to swing across: here the f-pawn has already moved to f4, so Rf3–h3 is ready.
The rook is the piece that is easy to forget. Without it the queen can only give checks, and White is two bishops down.
Where can the king go?
After 4.Qg4+ the king has three squares, and none of them is safe. If it steps up to f6, the queen mates on g5. If it hides on h8 or h7, the rook lift decides, and giving up material only delays the end.
4...Kf6 walks into mate on g5
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4...Kh8 5.Rf3: blocking the h-file only delays the mate
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5...f5 attacks the queen, but the rook check comes first
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When it fails: a knight takes back on h7
With a knight on f6, the first capture is not forced to be made by the king. After 1.Bxh7+ Nxh7 the knight still guards the kingside, the queen has no way in, and White has simply lost a bishop for a pawn.
1...Nxh7: the knight takes back and the attack never starts
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When it fails: no rook lift, or the king can run
With the pawn still on f2 the rook on f1 cannot reach the third rank, so after the checks run out White is two bishops down. And if Black’s rook has already left f8, the king simply walks away through that square.
The pawn on f2 shuts the rook in, and the king is safe enough
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4...Kf8: with the rook gone from f8, the king runs
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